Richard Piersol: PowerPoint counterpoint
Got a powerful response to my comments complimenting a presentation at the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development’s breakfast for investors.
From Charlene and Steve Dunbar of Lincoln:
“We are writing to register our objection to your use of a product name in your column ‘The power is in the point’ published in Sunday's Journal Star on page F1. Why do you use ‘PowerPoint’ as a synonym for the word ‘presentation’? We believe it is incorrect and imprecise to misappropriate the name of a commercial product for a common noun.
“PowerPoint is simply the name of one software application for aiding speakers. People do not say ‘LotusNotes’ or ‘Outlook’ or ‘MSN’ or ‘Hotmail’ or ‘Gmail’ or ‘Yahoo’ when they plan to send or receive an email. Likewise, I noted on page 4E of the Journal Star that in an article about preparing one's home for sale, author Mary Amoroso asks the question, ‘Have the windows been washed?" She does not ask, ‘Have the windows been Windexed?’ Nor does she suggest ‘Kirby away pet hair daily.’
“Using PowerPoint interchangeably with ‘presentation’ or ‘slide’ implies that this software is the only way one can effectively create and deliver a presentation. Alternatives exist. For example, Impress is the name of the presentation software in the OpenOffice open-source office software suite. ...
“The noted author Edward Tufte has written a small book about how the use of PowerPoint presentations actually discourages insight and thinking about issues. The power of a presentation lies in the preparation and knowledge of the presenter, not the software used.
“ The content of your article may have contained important information and insights into economic development in Lincoln, but the introduction lauding a commercial product and using a name of a software application left us with little desire to continue reading.”
Well, I haven’t been scolded like that by a reader since a local contractor called my attention to the difference between cement and concrete.
In my defense, I was using the familiar PowerPoint name as a metaphor for all early-morning public presentations that normally put people to sleep.
Never mind.
Comments are always welcome.
The Nebraskan at Enron
One of the University of Nebraska’s less celebrated and more notorious graduates got his comeuppance last week.
Kenneth Rice, a native of Broken Bow, was chief of Enron’s Internet business unit, one of the corporate disaster’s more fictional business operations. Rice earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Creighton University.
The last of the Enron bigwigs to be sentenced, Rice got 27 months in prison.
Rice appears to be taking his medicine like a kid from Broken Bow should, even if he didn’t behave like one.
“What got me here is, I lied over about a two-year period, on a number of occasions, to the investing community,” Rice said, according to Bloomberg News. “I wasn’t raised that way, and I’m ashamed of that.”
Rice’s testimony helped prosecutors win the conviction of former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, who is serving a prison term of 24 1/3 years.
One of Rice's attorneys, Dan Cogdell, told the Associated Press he had never seen such cooperation by a witness in his 25 years of practicing law. And Cogdell’s been around the Texas bar awhile. He formerly worked with “Racehorse” Haynes, the prominent defender of Texas miscreants.
Cogdell said Rice had unquestionably accepted responsibility for his role in the fraud and had cooperated with prosecutors since the start of their investigation.
“He was laser accurate regardless of who it helped or who it hurt,” Cogdell told news reporters.
Rice faced as much as 10 years in prison and agreed to forfeit cash, sports cars and jewelry worth $14.7 million under the terms of his 2004 plea agreement.
Between February 2000 and June 2001, Rice sold $53 million worth of Enron stock, some at a time when he had access to secret information about the company’s enormous but hidden debt load, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Once among Skilling’s closest confidants and companions on off-road adventure tours, Rice ultimately turned against him,” the Times reported. “Rice was known within Enron’s gleaming office towers as a risk taker who collected motorcycles and fast cars, including a Ferrari and a Shelby he turned over to the government as part of his plea deal.”
We have been unable to reach Rice through his defense lawyers.
Perhaps readers can tell us and each other something about Rice.
Dream on
The Wall Street Journal reports that about 70 percent of Americans are very or somewhat confident they will have enough to retire comfortably.
Almost half of those saving for retirement have less than $25,000 salted away, the paper reported.
Reach Richard Piersol at 473-7241 or at dpiersol@journalstar.com
From Charlene and Steve Dunbar of Lincoln:
“We are writing to register our objection to your use of a product name in your column ‘The power is in the point’ published in Sunday's Journal Star on page F1. Why do you use ‘PowerPoint’ as a synonym for the word ‘presentation’? We believe it is incorrect and imprecise to misappropriate the name of a commercial product for a common noun.
“PowerPoint is simply the name of one software application for aiding speakers. People do not say ‘LotusNotes’ or ‘Outlook’ or ‘MSN’ or ‘Hotmail’ or ‘Gmail’ or ‘Yahoo’ when they plan to send or receive an email. Likewise, I noted on page 4E of the Journal Star that in an article about preparing one's home for sale, author Mary Amoroso asks the question, ‘Have the windows been washed?" She does not ask, ‘Have the windows been Windexed?’ Nor does she suggest ‘Kirby away pet hair daily.’
“Using PowerPoint interchangeably with ‘presentation’ or ‘slide’ implies that this software is the only way one can effectively create and deliver a presentation. Alternatives exist. For example, Impress is the name of the presentation software in the OpenOffice open-source office software suite. ...
“The noted author Edward Tufte has written a small book about how the use of PowerPoint presentations actually discourages insight and thinking about issues. The power of a presentation lies in the preparation and knowledge of the presenter, not the software used.
“ The content of your article may have contained important information and insights into economic development in Lincoln, but the introduction lauding a commercial product and using a name of a software application left us with little desire to continue reading.”
Well, I haven’t been scolded like that by a reader since a local contractor called my attention to the difference between cement and concrete.
In my defense, I was using the familiar PowerPoint name as a metaphor for all early-morning public presentations that normally put people to sleep.
Never mind.
Comments are always welcome.
The Nebraskan at Enron
One of the University of Nebraska’s less celebrated and more notorious graduates got his comeuppance last week.
Kenneth Rice, a native of Broken Bow, was chief of Enron’s Internet business unit, one of the corporate disaster’s more fictional business operations. Rice earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Creighton University.
The last of the Enron bigwigs to be sentenced, Rice got 27 months in prison.
Rice appears to be taking his medicine like a kid from Broken Bow should, even if he didn’t behave like one.
“What got me here is, I lied over about a two-year period, on a number of occasions, to the investing community,” Rice said, according to Bloomberg News. “I wasn’t raised that way, and I’m ashamed of that.”
Rice’s testimony helped prosecutors win the conviction of former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, who is serving a prison term of 24 1/3 years.
One of Rice's attorneys, Dan Cogdell, told the Associated Press he had never seen such cooperation by a witness in his 25 years of practicing law. And Cogdell’s been around the Texas bar awhile. He formerly worked with “Racehorse” Haynes, the prominent defender of Texas miscreants.
Cogdell said Rice had unquestionably accepted responsibility for his role in the fraud and had cooperated with prosecutors since the start of their investigation.
“He was laser accurate regardless of who it helped or who it hurt,” Cogdell told news reporters.
Rice faced as much as 10 years in prison and agreed to forfeit cash, sports cars and jewelry worth $14.7 million under the terms of his 2004 plea agreement.
Between February 2000 and June 2001, Rice sold $53 million worth of Enron stock, some at a time when he had access to secret information about the company’s enormous but hidden debt load, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Once among Skilling’s closest confidants and companions on off-road adventure tours, Rice ultimately turned against him,” the Times reported. “Rice was known within Enron’s gleaming office towers as a risk taker who collected motorcycles and fast cars, including a Ferrari and a Shelby he turned over to the government as part of his plea deal.”
We have been unable to reach Rice through his defense lawyers.
Perhaps readers can tell us and each other something about Rice.
Dream on
The Wall Street Journal reports that about 70 percent of Americans are very or somewhat confident they will have enough to retire comfortably.
Almost half of those saving for retirement have less than $25,000 salted away, the paper reported.
Reach Richard Piersol at 473-7241 or at dpiersol@journalstar.com
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